'Baseball genius': Inside Padres' postseason-clinching triple play

LOS ANGELES -- Since Jake Cronenworth began playing second base in San Diego in 2020, he and Padres third baseman Manny Machado have had a running dialogue.

“If it's a hard-hit ball, when you're playing in, we're going to turn [a triple play],” Cronenworth said. “That was the first opportunity we got.”

Quite a moment for it.

The Padres made baseball history in their 4-2 victory at Dodger Stadium on Tuesday night, becoming the first team to clinch their place in the postseason by turning a triple play -- Machado, to Cronenworth, to Donovan Solano at first base.

It capped a frenzied ninth inning, in which the Dodgers scored a run and put the tying runs aboard with Shohei Ohtani in the on-deck circle. Miguel Rojas, Los Angeles’ No. 9 hitter, squared to bunt earlier in the at-bat.

The Padres called their bunt defense for the next pitch, fully expecting Rojas to square. And then … he swung away, hitting a sharp grounder toward Machado at third.

“As soon as he hit it, I'm like, ‘Let's go,’” Machado said. “I was playing in. That play, you have to be perfectly aligned right against the base, you have to tag third base really quick. It just happened to be perfect.”

“I feel like I had an opportunity to get the bunt down early on that at-bat, but I couldn’t get the job done there,” Rojas said. “Just because the way they were playing on defense, I think it made sense for me to swing the bat there. I’m totally confident that I can get to a fastball. Unfortunately, I hit it on the ground.”

It marked the ninth triple play in Padres history and the first since Chase Headley began a similar around-the-horn version in 2010. They’d never turned one to end a game -- a feat which has happened only 28 times in MLB history.

The stakes were awfully high with this one.

The Padres now trail the Dodgers by only two games in the National League West (with two more games to come this week at Dodger Stadium). San Diego already owns the tiebreaker, thus controlling its own destiny for its first NL West title in 18 years.

But the Padres needed to win Tuesday -- and they were teetering. Closer Robert Suarez had allowed three straight singles to open the inning. Ohtani loomed on deck. And, OK, maybe the Padres opt to walk Ohtani with an open base, if Rojas gets the bunt down. But then, the bases are loaded, with the winning runs aboard for Mookie Betts.

Instead, after Rojas missed on his first bunt attempt, the Dodgers called off the bunt, seeing Xander Bogaerts break toward third base to cover while Machado charged.

“He was going to bunt the first pitch, and then he goes down 0-1,” said Dodgers manager Dave Roberts. “They set up for the wheel [play]. Bogaerts is in the hole. So you can’t bunt because you’re bunting into an out. With the infield in, Bogaerts out of position, the best chance is to put the ball in play and hopefully find a hole.

“Unfortunately, it was hit right at Manny going towards the bag, and he made a heck of a play.”

Precisely the type of play the Padres have come to expect from their superstar third baseman.

“Honestly, that's just Manny Machado being a baseball genius,” said general manager A.J. Preller. “Most guys probably start that [double play]. For Manny to go make that play -- super instinctive, defensive genius. He's just so much fun to watch.”

In the aftermath, as the Padres celebrated their clinch in the visiting dugout at Dodger Stadium, the last man to turn a triple play in a Padres-Dodgers game reveled in the moment. A.J. Ellis, now in the Padres’ front office, started a controversial triple play as the Dodgers’ catcher on April 15, 2012.

“The instincts just to go and get that ball, take it right to the bag and whip it to second -- he's an elite defender, a gamer,” Ellis said of Machado. “All of us were just caught off guard watching it. He's probably the only person who has the awareness to make that play the way he did. Glad he's on our side.”

Instincts indeed. Even Machado admitted he wasn’t exactly ready for what was about to come.

“I thought he was going to bunt,” Machado said. “He showed it the first time. It caught me by surprise, for sure. … Couldn’t have worked any better.”